Unless a T725 is coming, it'll either be more Seahawks or T625. Wildcat, which is at a similar weight has a fixed aesa radar, can carry torpedos, sonobuoys, 20 Martlet LMMs etc. It's also powered by the same engine we have on T129, which we want our own engine for T625 to match.
Unless they are thinking more Seahawks will be delivered when we ask for them, it will have to be T625. T925 being this big is also somewhat related to the navy as Kotil said. They can't have their cake and eat it too, a lighter AW101 will never work on frigates, going by dimensions it was never even planned to be used on frigates.
And I really don't see us ordering more Seahawks and US accepting it anytime soon. Another blunder on procurement planning by SSM and MSB? Very much possible. In that case, they'll either slim the T925, or go with T625 anyhow.
Helicopters like Seahawks for combatant vessels are essentially what gives them top end destructive assault capability when it comes to ASW , ASUW and EW. As mentioned by
@Anmdt , as well as their electronics and EW suites, their missile and light torpedo carrying capabilities et al are all vital for the ships.
As far as I know we do not possess technology to manufacture helicopters that are marine capable. If Tusas somehow can produce helicopters that are suitable for marine operations, then the sooner they start tackling this problem the better.
Every single part of the helicopter that can be exposed to sea-air has to be produced to a higher standard. That includes all mechanical and electronic parts as well as certain engine parts (in fact a sea helicopter has to have a navalised engine) . Then there is the overall construction that needs to be robust enough to withstand harsh landings and environments.
According to below Bloomberg news piece, Norway is buying 6 Seahawk helicopters for a whopping price of 1.1billion dollars.
Last year Spain ordered 8 Seahawks for a price of 950 million dollars.
It covers in addition to the helicopters, 4 spare engines, 32 AGM-114R(N) Hellfire missiles, all up rounds; two Hellfire II Captive Air Training Missiles, along with a variety of other weapons and associated equipment.
The announcement comes as Spain works to upgrade other parts of its helicopter fleet.
breakingdefense.com
So buying helicopters is not cheap. We have to build them ourselves. Also just like new planes, if we want to integrate indigenous weapons, that means more costs.
If we build them ourselves, there is a big market there that we can tap in to. US has been milking them (and us) all these years. We should have a piece of that cake as well.
